Dinkytown

23rd October, 2011

Today Eric gave me a lift to St. Cloud quite early so I could catch a 9.20am bus. The bus has free wifi so I actually watched the rugby world cup final. The bus journey was just long enough to watch it. After I arrived, I went to the house, dropped off my bags and headed out almost right away (I had a 2.5hrs transport ticket so I could use the same ticket to get back into Minneapolis). I decided to go to Dinkytown, which is by the University of Minnesota. I have heard from a few people that it is worth seeing. I guess the university is worth seeing but Dinkytown is just a place with nice cafes and bars (not really a tourist place).

Although I did accidentally come across a natural history museum and it happened to be free on Sundays. It was a pretty crappy museum with models of animals found in Minnesota. They did have an exhibition on coffee though, which I found interesting (the photo above is from the coffee exhibit - they are bags of coffee beans). I learned a bit about the history of coffee (only 1000 years old). The first beans were roasted in Ethiopia, then popularised in Turkey and spread throughout Europe via Austria. Europe's first coffee house was in Vienna. Coffee was seen as an alternative to wine in Islamic countries (and a way to stay awake for night-time prayers). Finland currently drinks the most coffee in the world per capita. Coffee is the world's most used drug. It takes up to 45 minutes for caffeine to be released in the body and the 'high' lasts for only 1 hour.

I wandered around the massive University. Wikipedia told told me that at over 52,000 students, it's the fourth largest school in the US. The university district is almost like it's own little city. They have their own hockey and football stadiums, theatres, buses, shops etc. I saw a lot of Fraternity houses. These are huge houses with flags and giant posters outside them. They all have Greek letters in their name. I also had a little tour of the Campus Ministries. There was Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist and Church of Latter-Day Saints all in a row. The Catholic building (with church inside) is on a different street. I wonder was it on purpose. They had a 7pm Mass, which I went to. The church was pretty full with students (even though they have 5 Masses on Sundays) but I guess it's a large school. Fellowship is a big thing with them. Before Mass, the singer asked everyone to stand up and greet the people around you. Also during the Lord's Prayer, everybody holds hands (even with strangers). And after Mass, they encouraged everyone to go to the reception to meet others.

I walked back to take the train home and passed through the Somalian district. This was very interesting to see. It was like stepping into a different country. There were African shops, cafes and restaurants (and, of course, many Somalian people around).  I would be interested in trying some of this food or their coffee but I don't know if the places usually serve outsiders. It might be a bit awkward.